German airline Hahn Air claims to be the first airline company to issue tickets on a blockchain, the firm announced in a press release on Nov. 18.
The ticket sale using blockchain technology was made possible through Hahn Air’s collaboration with a decentralized platform for the travel industry, Winding Tree. Frederick Nowotny, head of sales engineering at Hahn Air, Maksim Izmaylov, the founder of Winding Tree, and Davide Montali, CIO at Winding Tree, became the first passengers to use blockchain-booked tickets.
Commenting on the product, Nowotny said the goal of the company is to “investigate and monitor the opportunities this technology holds for travel distribution, even if widespread acceptance is still a vision of the future.”
Blockchain and crypto in the travel industry
Blockchain technology and digital currencies have been steadily entering the travel industry, in recent years. Earlier in November, Alternative Airlines, a travel company based in the United Kingdom, partnered with cryptocurrency service Utrust to facilitate payments with crypto, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Dash, DigiByte (DGB) and Utrust’s native token UTK.
In late October, blockchain startup Zamna raised $5 million to automate airport security checks using blockchain and biometrics technology. Zamna said that International Airlines Group, Emirates Airlines and United Arab Emirates’ General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs are now among its clients.
Last year, in an effort to promote tourism more broadly, the state government of the Australian province of Queensland issued a grant to crypto startup TravelbyBit as part of over $8.3 million of innovation funding. The firm aims to increase the number of tourists to the province by allowing travelers to book their flights and services using cryptocurrencies.
